Vicki Prevost: Manchester reaches perfection

"When you are a bowler, a 300 game is always in the back of your mind," said Tazz Manchester, 46, of New Bedford. "But, that doesn't necessarily mean that you will ever bowl one."

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By VICKI PREVOST

southcoasttoday.com

By VICKI PREVOST

Posted Sep. 9, 2012 at 12:01 AM

By VICKI PREVOST
Posted Sep. 9, 2012 at 12:01 AM

» Social News

"When you are a bowler, a 300 game is always in the back of your mind," said Tazz Manchester, 46, of New Bedford. "But, that doesn't necessarily mean that you will ever bowl one."

After 42 years of bowling, the right-handed bowler finally reached perfection in the Summer Classic League at Wonder Bowl. It was in the second game on the first night of bowling for the summer league last May 23.

Starting the night with a 186 game, 10 pins below his average, he adjusted his feet a little on the approach at the start of the second game. He used his 3-year-old ball, a Hammer Jig Saw Corner. It's the only ball he uses for both his strike ball and his spares. He says he likes the ball and it's a good fit for his type of bowling.

He claims he's had 12-straight strikes before, but never in the same game. He'd end one game with eight and start the next with four, so he wasn't all that nervous when it came to the last frame of a game that had all strikes up to that point.

"The 11th strike was a little tight," Manchester said, "but I got a good strike in the 12th. To me, getting a 300 game is more luck than skill and I thought whatever was going to happen would be all right with me."

After the 300 game, he bowled a 240 (between ending the first game with a few strikes, then 12 in the second and few more to start the third, he had 17-straight strikes) and then a 190 in the fourth game.

Manchester dedicated the 300 game to his grandfather, Norman Rogers Sr., who was the person who taught him how to bowl all those years ago.

"I come from a large family," he said, "and most of them bowl. My grandfather taught us all how to bowl when we were young with the same ball. It was a four-pound ball that was drilled with three finger holes and a thumb hole."

Not long thereafter, he joined the junior program at the former Bowlers Country Club. He was on a team with four of his cousins. As an adult, he joined the Twilight League at Bowlers Country Club that was run by his grandfather and followed the league to Wonder Bowl when Bowlers Country Club closed. After his grandfather passed away, the league was run by his uncle, Bob Lanouette, until a couple of years ago when Lanouette retired from the position.

"I only bowl one league a season," he said. "My team in each of the winter and summer leagues is made up of cousins and real close friends of the family."

Throughout his career, he's had at least four league championships and has a career-high series of 756. Now that he's gotten a 300 game, Manchester claims it's time to concentrate on getting an 800 series.

That feat may need a little more than luck, however.

A NEBA Singles Tournament is September 15-16 at Nutmeg Bowl in Fairfield, Conn. For information, or to register, visit www.BowlNEBA.com.

Mike Berube, in the Twilight League at Wonder Bowl, bowled an 811 series that included back-to-back 300 games on the first night of the new season.

Barbara Page, in the New Bedford Women's City League, bowled her first-career 200 game, a 203, on Sept. 4.